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UBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. -LL'._-L£-.§. 1 

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UNITED STATES OF AMEEIOA. 



53d Congress, ) SENATE. \ Keport 

M iSesaion. S '\ No. ;304. 



h 



IN THE SENATE OF THE TNITED STATES. 



Apiul b, 1894.— Ordered to be printed, ft/wo/ yUL.icAAUA> ^ 

3Ir. Kyle, from tbe Committee on Education and Labor, submitted 

the following 

REPORT: 

[To accompauy araeudmeut intended to be proposed to H. E. 5575.] 

The Committee on Education and Labor, to whom was referred the 
"amendment intended to be proposed by Mr. Kyle to the bill (H. E. 
5575) making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Govern- 
ment for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895, and for other purposes, 
viz: insert the following: For the maintenance of the law department 
of the Howard University, $8,000; for books for the library of the 
law department of the Howard University, $1,000," respectfully report 
the same to the Senate with the most earnest recommendation that 
the amendment be adopted in its entirety for the reason that the public 
need which it meets is urgent and the duty of Congress, in respect to 
it, absolute, paramount, and extreme; and for cause the committee say 
as follows : 

The amendment is but another step in furtherance of the policy which 
has been pursued by the American people towards the millions of per- 
sons suddenly delivered from slavery by a civil war of unparalleled 
magnitude. 

France, after seven years of liberty, reenslaved the freedmen of her 
West India colonies. 

England, with her well-nigh perfect instincts of freedom, imposed 
upon the colored population of Jamaica a humiliating apprenticeship; 
and in the Republics of South America emancipation has come to the 
oppressed bondmen by slow steps and uncertain stages; but the 
American people, in spite of revolution, made their bondmen freed- 
men, and the freedmen citizens, and responded promptly to the duty of 
placing within the reach of this added element of citizens, whose situ- 
ation was exceptional and peculiar, facilities by which the duties and 
responsibilities as well as the rights and ]3rivileges of constitutional 
political equality might be fully appreciated and safely conferred and 
enjoyed. 

Under the authority conferred by various acts of Congress, particu- 
larly section 13 of the act of July 16, 1866, and the proviso in the 
Army appropriation bill approved March 2, 1867, and section 3, act of 
June 24, 1868, Gen. O. O. Howard came to the assistance of the Chris- 
tian and benevolent associations, which, just after the civil war, were 
engaged in establishing in this District, and in Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
and the Southern States, educational institutions which might be ade- 
quate to the work of fitting teachers and qualifying persons of color 



2 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. . |l| -J fl ^ 

for the learned professions to labor among tlieir own people, tlie great 
mass of whom the institution of slavery had necessarily kept almost 
as ignorant as the beasts of burden and almost as wretched as the 
reptiles that crawled among the cotton and the cane. 

As a result of these joint efforts of i)rivate benevolence and public 
provision by law, the Howard University was chartered by Congress 
in 1867, as follows, and a bureau of the Government located upon its 
property from which the institution derived the greater part of the 
means necessary for its temporary equipment and current support: 

[Cliap. CLXII, U. S. Stal. L., entitled '-An Act to inoorporatu the Howard University iu tbe Dis- 
trict of Columbia,' api)roved March 2, 1867.] 

He it enacted by the /Senate and House of Ilepreseiitativets of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That there be established, and. hereby is established, iu the 
District of Columbia, a university for the education of youth in the liberal arts and 
sciences, under the name, style, and title of The Howard University. 

Sec. 2. Jnd be it furtlier enacted, Ihat Samuel C. Pomeroy, Charles B. Boynton, 
Oliver O. Howard, Burton C. Cook, Charles H. Howard, James B. Hutchinson, 
Henry A. Brewster, Benjamin F. Morris, Danforth B. Nichols, William G. Finney, 
Eosw'ell H. Stevens, E. M. Cushmau, Hiram Barbour, E. W. Robinson, W. F. Bascom, 
J. B. Johnson, and Silas L. Looniis be, and they are hereby, declared to be a body 
politic and corporate, with perpetual succession in deed or in law to all intents and 
purposes whatever, by the name, style, and title of The Howard University, by 
which name and title they and their successors shall be competent, at law and 
in equity, to take to themselves and their successors, for the use of said university, 
.any estate whatsoever in any messuage, lauds, tenements, hereditaments, goods, 
•chattels, moneys, and other effects, hy gift, devise, grant, donation, bargain, sale, 
■conveyance, assurance, or will; and the same to grant, bargain, sell, transfer, assign, 
convey, assure, demise, declare, to use and farm let, and to place out on interest, for 
the use of said university, iu such manner as to them, or a majority of them, shall 
be deemed most beueticial to said institution; and to receive tlie same, their rents, 
issues, and prolits, income and interest, and to apply the same for the pro]3er use and 
benetit of said university; and by the same name to sue and be sued, to implead 
and be impleaded in any court of law and equity iu all manner of suits, actions, 
and proceedings wiiatsoever, and generally by and in the same name to do and trans- 
act all and every the business toucliing or concerning the premises: Prodded, That 
the same do no l exceed the value of iifty thousand dollars net annual income over and 
above and exclusive of the receipts for the education and support of students of 
said university. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted. That the hrst meeting of said corporators shall 
be holden at the time and place at which a majority of the persons herein above 
named shall assemble for that purpose; and six days' notice shall be given each of 
.said corporators, at which meeting said corporators may enact by-laws not incon- 
sistent with the laws of the United States regulating the government of the cor- 
poration. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That the government of the university shall be 
vested iu a board of trustees of not less than thirteen members, who shall be elected 
by the corporation at their first meeting. Said board of trustees shall have per- 
petual succession in deed or in law, and in them shall be vested the power hereinbe- 
fore granted to the corporation. They shall adopt a common seal, which they may 
alter at pleasure, under and by which all deeds, diplomas, and acts of the university 
shall pass aud be authenticated. They shall elect a ]jresident, a secretary, and a 
treasurer. The treasurer shall give such bonds as the board of trustees may direct. 
The said board shall also appoint the professors and tutors, describing the number 
and determining their respective salaries. They shall also appoint such other officers, 
agents, or employees a,g the wants of the university may from time to time demand, 
in all cases iixing their compensation. All meetings of said board may be called in 
such manner as the trustees shall prescribe, and nine of them so assembled shall 
constitute a quorum to do business, and a less number may adjourn from time to 
•time. 

Sec. 5. And be it furiJier enacted. That the university shall consist of the following- 
departments and such others as the board of trustees may establish: First, normal; 
second, collegiate; third, theological; foni'th, law; fifth, medicine; sixth, agri- 
ciilture. 

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the immediate government of the several 
departments, subject to the- control of the trtistees, sliall be intrusted to their 
respective faculties, but the trustees shall regulate -tihe course of instruction, pre- 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 3 

scribe, witli the advice of the professors, tlie necessary text-boolvs, confer degrees, 
and grant such diplomas as are usualh' conferred and granted in other universities. 

Sec. 7. And he it further enacted, That tlie board of trustees shall have power to 
remove any professor or tutor or other ofticers connected with the institution when, 
in their judgment, the interest of the university shall require it. 

Skc. 8. And be It further enacted, That the board of trustees shall publish an annual 
report, making an exhibit of the affairs of the university. 

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That no misnomer of the said corporation shall 
defeat or annul any donation, gift, grant, devise, or bequest to or from the said 
corporation. 

Sec 10. And be it further enacted, That the said corjjoration shall not employ its 
funds or income or any part thereof in banking operations or for any purpose or 
ol)iect other than those expressed in the lirst section of this act ; and that nothing in 
this act contained shall be so construed as to prevent Congress from altering, amend- 
ing, or repealing the same. 

Api^roved March 2, 1867. 

The iiuiversity being- thus launched uuder the patrouage of Con- 
gress and the Executive Departments of War and of the Interior as 
one of the instruments of Government to hasten the proper assimila- 
tion of the colored people into the body politic, and to render them 
more capable of intelligently sustaining the burdens, performing the 
duties, and wisely using the advantages of citizenship, was not included 
in the plans and provisions of the philanthropists of the North, whose 
munihcent benefactions have carried forward a similar work in the 
various States of the South and Southwest. 

Howard University, with the exception of its theological depart- 
ment, has been and still is regarded as the charge of Congress at the 
seat of Government, to which it must look for resources to carry for- 
ward its work, designed only to promote the public good and the 
national welfare. 

Accordingly, after the Freedmen's Bureau expired by limitation and 
the university lost the help derived from its situation in tlie buildings 
of the institution, the resources of the university became so reduced 
and so precarious as to seriously cripple and retard its work. 

Congress then came forward and made such provision for the nor- 
mal, preparatory, collegiate, and industrial departments as enabled 
these to continue the important, useful, and rapidly growing work 
appropriate to each of tbem; but there is a disposition on the part of 
Congress each year to reduce this allowance, thus making it necessary 
to curtail the work each year by reducing both the number and com- 
pensation of the professors, so that, if the professors were not conse- 
crated to the work, men of tirst-rate abilities could not be kept by the 
university. 

The theological department has always been well provided for by the 
various churches, one af which has erected commodious buildings near 
the university for the accommodation of divinity students. 

The medical department has derived some advantages of a quite help- 
ful nature from the facilities afforded by the Freedmen's Eospital, which 
is located upon the property of the university and supported by Con- 
gress through appropriations disbursed by the Interior Department. 

The agricultural department of the university had to be given up 
entirely for want of means to establish, equip, and conduct it, and is 
not at the present time in operation. This is not only unfortunate for 
the country, but a most serious deprivation to the colored people when it 
is considered that nearly ninety thousand of them reside in this District 
and here and elsewhere are excluded from the trades, trades unions, and 
aven ues of every kind of employment except that of a menial character. In 
the nature of things a large portion of these people must be redistributed 
by some means to agricultural life and pursuits. This would help those 



, 4 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

SO given a lite ot employmeut and independence, and those who remain 
a part of the population of the District. It would help the adjoining- 
States whose lands are declining in value and fertility on account of 
the need of an increase iu their sturdy and intelligent rural population, 
and the appropriation to accomplish this beneficent, just, and patriotic 
object could be met out of the retained- bounty fund of 30,000 col- 
ored soldiers now in the Treasury and amounting on March I, 1870, to 
$1,256,991,25. If the already great and steadily enhancing values of 
laud in the District should prove an embarrassment to the trustees in 
providing a farm of suitable dimensions for all the purposes of its 
agricultural department the Government reservation of Fort Wash- 
ington, on the Potomac River and near the city, might be devoted to 
this purpose without detriment to the public interests and without inter- 
ference with the fortification and armament being made there; and if 
the reservation should prove inadequate to the needs of such a school 
located upon it, adjoining lands could be leased or purchased at a most 
reasonable figure. Here, also, both on account of the uses of the res- 
ervation and the width and depth of the channel of the river at the 
landing, might be established, in connection with the agricultural 
school, a military and naval training school which would supply to the 
colored youth of tbe country opportunities now lost to them of partic- 
ipation in tbe advantages of the academies located at West Point and 
Annapolis ; and in order to make these advantages general each mem- 
ber of Congress should have imposed upon him the duty to nominate 
each year a student from his State and district to be trained in the 
school, and if such students have not been prepared elsewhere to under- 
take the studies suitable to be entered upon here, then the other depart- 
ments of the university should be authorized to fit them. 

The committee spoke above of the serious deprivation to the colored 
people involved in thus neglecting this agricultural, military, and naval 
training which might be aflbrded by the Howard University. The com- 
mittee might have gone further and described this deprivation as not 
only most serious, but as most unjust, because of the 100,000,000 acres of 
public lands which the Government has donated to the States for school 
purposes the colored people of the District of Columbia have never had 
so much as the proceeds of a single acre. 

They have never had a dollar from the 155,000,000 acres given to the 
railroad companies; nor have they enjoyed any benefit whatever of the 
•$28,000,000 of surplus then in the Treasury divided in 1836 among the 
States as a gift to their agricultural colleges, because iu those States 
where the colored population is greatest the foundations established 
by this national donation are not open to the admission of colored peo- 
ple. Besides, under the law making the grant, the District of Columbia 
was entitled to its pro rata share, but has not yet received a single cent; 
neither have they received any share, as the committee is informed and 
believe, iu the benefits of the act of Congress giving the States the 
swamp and overflowed lands, of which the States had selected, up to 
October, 1889, some 80,000,000 acres more than those above enumer- 
ated. 

The committee had intended to include in the amendment an item 
providing $15,000 for the establishment and maintenance of the agri- 
cultural department of the university for the current year but have 
omitted it, fearing that such action might unfavorably affect the 
amendment for the maintenance of the law department, already in 
part provided for in the bill, and which, in i)oint of immediate and 
direct public usefulness, exceeds in importance all the other depart- 
ments of the university, because through its instruction a large incre- 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 5 

nieut of citizens must learn tbe character of tiie laws and institutions 
under which they live and the nature and functions of the Government 
of which they form a very considerable part; if one-eighth of the 
whole of our country in the sum of its industry — its fidelity to the prin- 
ciples of liberty and equality, its obedience to law, its loyalty and patri- 
otism in times of national peril, its fortitude in adversity, its magnan- 
imity to bear burdens that posterity may reap the benefits, its faith in 
the honor and integrity of fellow-citizens invested with the duty to 
legislate in prudence and justice both for the informed and the igno- 
rant, the rich and the poor, the high and the humble, the Avhite and 
the black — be deemed of value in estimating the qualities and resources 
of a great and enduring nation. The committee ha^^e therefore omitted 
this item from the amendment and eontevit themselves with recommending 
that the Appropriations Committee incorporate a clause in the bill directing 
the Secretary of the Interior to include in his estimates for the coming 
year provision for the agricultural department of the university on a basis 
of an alloivance of $15^000 per annum. 

The law department of the university, subsequent to the removal of 
the Freemen's Bureau from the university and prior to 1891, was practi- 
cally without resources, was almost suspended several times, and at 
best merely languished upon the charity of the instructors and the pro- 
ceeds of a small sum left to it by Gen. Howard. Perhaps no better 
description of its condition can be given than that wliich occurs in the 
correspondence which appeared in the public press between the presi- 
dent of the Columbian University of this District and Wm. H. H. Hart, 
esq., now a member of the bar of the court of appeals and of the supreme 
court of the District, and who was appointed special assistant H. S. 
district attorney in and for the DivStrict of Columbia by Attorney-Gen- 
eral Garland. 

The correspondence is given in full in order that the denial, upon con- 
sideration, of admission of colored persons to the white law schools even 
in Washington may appear, and is as follows; 

[The National Repv^blican, November 2, 1885.] 

THE COLOR LINE IN COLLEGE — IT IS DRAWN ANEW XT THE COLUMIUAX UNIVER- 
SITY — INTERESTING CORRESPONDJINCE BETWEEN PRESIDENT WELLING AND AN 
AMBITIOUS APPLICANT FOR ACADEMIC HONORS — WHY THE RACE ISSUE IS RAISED 

The following correspondence lias taken place in relation to the admission of col- 
ored students at Columbian University : 

Washington, D. C, October 16, iSSo. 
Hon. James C. Welling, 

President of Columbian Law School: 

Sir : Four years ago when you matriculated a gentleman of color in your law school, 
and refused the urgent demand of a large body of students to send him away, all 
good men rejoiced and regarded your action as another great stej) in the direction of 
equal opportunities of culture for all persons of good character and proper mental 
training, irrespective of creed or color. 

And when the young man won the second prize, which was conferred upon him 
by your own hand, together with a decoration of the degree of bachelor of laws, 
the friends of liberty and equal rights concluded that the matter was settled and a 
great victory won, so far, at least, as your university, the best equipped in the 
national capital was concerned. 

Imagine my surprise in view of the above-named facts, therefore, when on Wednes- 
day evening last several gentlemen of color, myself among the number, were refused 
permission "to attend the coxirse of lectures to be delivered to the junior class. 

After being sent away by you I called upon Mr. Mattingly, chairman, I believe, 
of the board of trustees. He stated in substance to a mutual friend, a lawyer, who 
presented the case to him, that the committee had promised the white students some 
time ago not to admit gentlemen of color to the lectures, because the presence of 
such persons in the hall might prove objectionable to the other students. 

But it was suggested that if the other students would indicate their willingness 
to allow colored candidates to become members of their class the executive board 
would gladly admit them; that the board had already manifested a desire to open 



b HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

tlie doors of the university to all worthy applicants by receiving several colored 
students within the last four j^ears; hut that uow the board thought it prudent to 
adopt a different policy, and in future would be governed in the matter by the 
wishes of the white students. 

In the first place, the white students finally acquiesced in your action of four 
years ago, and since then have regarded this question as res Judloata and signified 
their approval of your decision by becoming and remaining members of your school; 
and it seems reasonable to suppose that so far as the white students are concerned 
the issue of excluding colored applicants is being unnecessarily revived. 

In the second place, your present unexcelled facilities as a university became a 
possibility through the benevolence of the distinguisned philanthropist, W. W. 
Corcoran. If, therefore, the students, who are, in a measure, recipients of this great 
public benefactor's bounty, should combine to exclude other worthy individuals 
from a participation in the same they would thereby be placed in the unenviable 
attitude of selfish monopolists of another man's charity; and I firmly believe that, 
if it were proper to submit such a matter to a junior class, the vote of the members 
would be for admission and not for exclusion. 

But the president and honorable board of trustees of Columbian University are 
the custodians of a great public trust, and as upright adininistratorsof that respon- 
sible trust they can not allow the unreasonable prejudices of impetuous and inex- 
perienced undergraduates to dictate the policy of the university. 

Some have hinted that the induction of a national Democratic Chief Executive into 
power has caused your change of front, but this could hardly be true, because the 
greatest instrument to which the signature of His Excellency ever gave life and 
power was that declaring all the schools of the P^mpire State open to the children of 
all the citizens of that Commonwealth ; and as President, Grover Cleveland has never 
in a public or private capacity said nor done anything that could lead men to believe 
that he would act otherwise than he did as governor. 

Others have wondered whether your action was not prompted by the example of 
ftie national law school. This, I take it, could scarcely be true, because, though 
some governments favor the aggrandizement of one class of citizens at the expense of 
the rights of another class, yet our countrymen have never thought such a system 
worthy of imitation, and if one law school, ignoring the light and duty of the pres- 
ent, chooses to dwell in the darkness and prejudices of the past, that siii'ely could 
not influence you, who are not only abreast, but as an educiator of men, ahead of 
the times. 

In the wretched and gloomy days behind us there was a reason originating in our 
condition of ignorance and slavery for ostracizing us, but now, under the new dis- 
pensation of Providence, such reason no longer exists, and they who assist in perpet- 
uating this prejudice against us, now that the reason of it no longer exists, are 
engaged in the unholy cause of sowing among their fellow men seeds of sufiering 
and 

''Discord! dire sister of the slaughtering power. 
Small at her birth but rising every hour, 
While scarce the skies her horrid head can bound, 
She stalks on earth, and shakes the world around ; 
The nations bleed, wlier'er her steps she turns, 
The groans still deepen and the combat burns." 

You, sir, and the honorable board of trustees, may disclaim any such far reaching 
intention in your denial of the advantages of Columbian University to worthy 
colored applicants. If, however, you will but reflect a moment you must recognize 
the fact that he who is aware of the evil tendencies of his volitions, and yet puts 
them into exercise, becomes morally responsible for their ultimate effects. 

Nor will the plea of public opinion at all justify you. As the president of the 
leading university in the nation's capital you should be a leader of public opinion, 
and not its blind follower; a champion of truth, justice, and benevolence, and not 
a servant of error. 

As the president of the leading law school in the nation's capital, the guide, friend, 
and philosopher of the growing hopes of our country, Avho are to become ministers 
of justice, exponents of the great regulative science, custodians of the honor, for- 
tunes, and welfare of the citizens of the republic, you should bid pride of race, 
pride of purse, pride of name, ^jartiality, unjust discrimination, caste, prejudice, 
and the whole foul, harpy brood stop at the door, and not offer them a place in your 
lecture hall nor in the hearts of your students. 

In his introductoiy lecture Blackstone dwelt upon the importance of making a 
knowledge of the laws of one's country a part of the education of every scholar, 
divine, and statesman, as well as of the common lawyer. If that were true of 
England more than a hundred years ago, how much more important it is in our 
country and age, where the most humble citizen of to-day may be lifted to the most 



HOWARD INIVEWSITY, 7 

t^xiilted station to-moiTow, and among- a composite people as we are, where so many 
pecnliavities must arise from family seclusions, it is important that all the elements 
of our nation should be brought together in schools, where they nuiy become 
ac((uainte(l with each other and not grow np and go out into active life as sti'angers, 
for to be a stranger is to most persons to be regarded with a greater or less degree 
of hostility. 

And since those of the profession of the law are to contend in the same race for 
the same })rizes it is important that they should, as ;i. rule, train in the siime palestra. 

These, sir, are a few of the public aspects of the case. Permit me now to call your 
attention to some of its individual eft'ects. 

Try to imagine for a moment what an upright, refined, and sensitive nature must 
sutt'er in being thrust out from his fellowmen as if he were a leper, scorned and 
insulted as if he were an open and confessed criminal, denied the society of the 
beautiful and the cultivated, refused converse with the eloquent and the talented ; to 
strive for the world's gi-eat trinity — pleasure, profit, and honor — and yet find every 
avenue leading to them closed as with walls of steel against him; to live through the 
fever and fret of life without any of those mollifying solaces that spring from the 
kindly interest and sympathy of neighbors and friends; to see other men measured 
"-by the standard of character and attainments and find himself inexorably damned 
by an extraneous and accidental mark of birth, for which in law and reason no on© 
can be held accountable and forced to suffer. 

By treading the whole circle — 

"I could a tale unfold whose lightest word 

Would harrow up thy soul; 

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, 

Thy knotted and combined locks to part; 

Like quills upon the fretted porcupine." 

But I desist; the picture is too dark for your long contemplation; though the 
reality of it, in my everyday experience, is sufficient to make one seriously question 
as to whether life upon such conditions is worth living. 1 am well aware of the 
courage it requires to make a departure from the customary practices of the society 
around us, even when such departure is in the interest of justice, reason, and relig- 
ion; but rest assured, sir, that the right will triumph, and liring with it the rich 
reward of approval, both at the bar of public opinion and in the forum of conscience. 

The present unaraicable relations between two elements of our people cannot con- 
tinue for a very great while. We are objected to because it has been the custom to 
maltreat us, and most men are but mere imitators, who take the fashion of their 
minds as well as the cut of their garments from those of the higher ranks. Once 
let persons in your high station condemn by precept and example all unjust dis- 
crimination against us, and yon will be astonished to see how qnickly all animosity 
and friction will disappear. 

There is no point where a more effective beginning could be made than in the 
schools, and for this section than yonr university. 

Then, when in the future some Dumas shall instruct, charm, and delight the com- 
ing generation; some Douglass warm to life and rouse to activity the sense of jus- 
tice now dead in the heart of a nation totally absorbed in gain, or some Aletes, 
skilled in the art of diplomacy, fortified by the resources of philosophy and the 
learning of the school, represent the nation abroad, concerning whom, in the words 
of Tasso, men may say — 

"Alete e I'un, che da principio indigno 
Tra le brutere della plebe e' sorto." 



(Aletes is the one who, from origin unworthy, among the •fiftlf()f the people is 
sprung.) 

You, with the complacency arising from a consciousness of duty done, may reflect 
that such persons did not rise in spite of you, but that their promotion, nsefulness 
and dignity are in a large measure the work of yonr hand. When such a spirit of 
justice shall pervade the hearts and characterize the actions of all the prominent 
men and men of affairs of our country, then will come — 

•' Felix ille dies, felix et dicitur annus, 
Felices, qui talem annum videre, diemque!" 

Hoping that the thoughts here, though crudely presented, may move yon and the 
honorable board of trustees, to make a favorable reconsideration of your decision 
in regard to this matter, I have the honor, sir, to subscribe myself your humble and 
most obedient servant, 

Wn.MAM H. H. Hart. 




8 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

President Welling' s reply. 

The Columbian UniverssIty, 

Washington, October 27, 1885. 
Mr. W. H. H. Hart: 

Dear Sir : I have pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of your interesting 
commnuication under date of the 15th instant. It did not come to my hands until 
yesterday. 

As the members of the corporation, and not the faculty, are the governing power 
of the university, you will perceive at once that I am not competent to deal with 
the questions which you discuss. 

These questions are already before the corporation, which reserves to itself the 
right, as it alone has the power to decide them, for the government of the faculties 
in all our departments of instruction. 

You are quite right in supposing that neither the action of the National University 
Law School nor the election of a Democratic President had anything to do with the 
action of our universitj^ authorities in reserving to themselves the ultimate decision 
of the question to which you refer. 

The question in the District of Columbia is not so simple as you seem to think. 
The Congress of the United States, responding to the wish of the colored popula- 
tion, has given to them colored public schools and a colored 8uj)erintendence, 
distinct from the schools and superintendence of the white population. 

The colored people show no disposition to give up their exclusive schools; more- 
over, the Congress gives large and liberal grants to Howard University for the 
especial benefit of the colored race, while to the Columbian University it makes no 
grants, but rather impedes its operations by levying taxes on its library and 
endowments. 

In this state of affairs our authorities wish to inquire what their duties really are, 
so long as existing legislation makes a legal discrimination in our public schools 
and lavors the colored race by giving to Howard University valuable grants and 
immunities which are denied to the Columbian University. If we are to share in 
the duties of Howard University we exjiect to share in the privileges. 
Yours, very truly, 

James C. Welling, 

President. 

I A closinr/ plea for civil rights. 

Washington, D. C, October 28, 1885. 
Hon. J as. C. Welling, 

President Columbian Universiti/: 

Dear Sir : Y'our anxiously awaited answer to my communication of the 16th 
instant came to hand this morning, and I hasten to reply. 

I have read your ansAver carefully, and am forced, both by the general tenor of 
your note and the irrelevant pleading of special Congressional grants to Howard 
University, sorrowfully to conclude that whatever hope 1 may have entertained of a 
favorable reconsideration of this matter by the govei'ning power in the university, 
of which you are pi-esident, was futile. 

Y'on set forth as a justification of the course now being pursued by the author- 
ities of the Columbian University the fact of a legal discrimination in existing 
legislation between the white and the colored population as to the public schools 
of the District of Columbia. 

It is an axiom of the law that the spirit which inspired its creation must charac- 
terize and direct its enforcement and not the strict letter in which the law is 
expressed; because, on account of the constantly changing surrounding circum- 
stances, the letter of the law is often found directly opposed to its spirit and the 
ends of justice defeated, instead of promoted, by observing the letter and ignoring 
the spirit of a legislative enactment. It is no less true of the municipal law than 
of the divine that "the letter of the law often killeth while the spirit maketh 
alive." 

The exclusive colored schools, under colored superintendence, was inspired by an 
honest desire, on the part of those who framed the law creating them, to benefit 
the colored people by placing in their hands the honorable positions of superinten- 
dents and teachers. Without doubt the inspiring motive was to benefit and 
strengthen the colored people, and not to injure and cripple them. 

lint all history declares, and all experience confirms the truth, that class legislation 
of whatever kind, and however well meant, invariably proves pernicious in the end, 
besides being especially repugnant to tlie principles upon wliicli our Government 
rests. And the case in question is no exception to the general rule. To secure some 
dozens of individuals positions and salaries as superintendents and teacheis all the 



HOWAKI) UNIVEIISITV. » 

cliildren of a wliite population of 150,000 souls are legally separated, witlidrawu, and 
estranged from all the children of a colored population of 80,000 persons. 

The youth ofthe.se two classes of citizens, living under the same Government, speak- 
ing the same language, woi'shiping the same God, arid promoting the same civiliza- 
tion, are from their infancy made to regard each other, not as members of the same 
national family, vf ith a common interest and a common destiny, but as distinct, alien, 
and hostile to each other. 

The impressions planted and fostered in childhood crystalize in manhood and 
womanhood, and end by developing a permanent caste prejudice in the stronger 
class, and, besides producing a sense of inferiority in the weaker class, it ojjerates 
to retard their progress upward in nearly every relation of life. 

Thus you perceive, by observing and perpetuating the letter of this law, you 
injure both whjte and colored people and benefit neither; moreover, in practice, 
this measure is found to be diametrically opposed to the proper spirit and function 
of a law which should be an expression of the best order of things, producing har- 
mony between otherwise conflicting elements and not encouraging disorder, conten- 
tion, and hate. 

The law is a bad one, even where it is binding; how iitterly unreasonable and 
unjust must it then appear for your university, Avhich it does not reach and for 
which it was not made, to invoke its malign power. With equal commeudatiou 
could Shylock exclaim, while whetting his knife to slay a fellow-citizen— 

' ■' I crave the law, 
The penalty and forfeit of my bond." 

Besides, the causes of morality, religion, and humanity suffer by forcing or allow- 
ing large masses of colored people to be drawn oft' into churches and schools under 
the leadership and control often of ignorant and weak individuals, whereby the 
educative, elevating, and refining intluences which would spring from the daily 
association and contact with the better classes of the white people in the class room 
and in the churches are wholly lost. And I believe that any really good man who 
thinks and reflects exhaustively upon this subject will find it impossible to decide 
against all the children of the Union receiving instruction from the same lips and 
taking the holy sacrament from the same hands. 

Laws then should be framed and interpreted to bring your people and my people 
together, and every statute book in the Republic ought to be, and in time will be, 
purged of every legislative enactment which keeps or forces them apart. 

But enough on this point. I'ardon me, however, but I must add that I fail to see 
how the establishment of colored public schools by legislative enactment can be 
urged as a reason or even ottered as an excuse by the authorities of the Columbian 
University for excluding gentlemen of color from their law department. I now 
come to the last point in'your answer to my appeal, namely, that Congress makes 
large grants to Howard University for the exclusive benefit of the colored race. I 
have first to say that Howard UniVersity is not a colored people's school any more 
than it is a white people's school. It declares in its charter that Howard Univer- 
sity throws open the doors of all of its departments of instruction to all persons of 
good character without discrimination on account of sex, creed, or color. There 
are now, or have been, wliite students in all of its departments, and five-eighths of 
the names upon the roster of the medical department are those of white students, 
and among them are the names of the son and daughter of a U. S. Senator from 
California. The reason of this is that the Howard University medical department, 
as your law department, is the best equipped school of that profession in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. Secondly, the law department does not receive 1 cent of the 
moneys appropriated by Cimgress ; these means are available for the academic depart- 
ments only of H(jward University. 

The law department of Howard University has no source of revenue except the 
pitiful sum paid as tuition fees by some dozen students. The chairs of this depart- 
ment are filled by noble, generous-hearted men, who serve for sweet charity's sake, 
and not for fair compensation. The quarters are cramped, the facilities inadequate, 
and a proper esprit de corps among the students wholly wanting. 

In short, this is the conclusion of the whole matter. Desiring to study the science 
of the law I find that on account of my color the National University Law School 
will not admit me. The Georgetown University Law School excludes negroes and 
women, and the Columbian University L;iw School closes its doors in my face. The 
authorities of the Columbian University have done me a great wrong, and the law 
ought to furnish me a relief from it. But your friends have the ears of justice ; they 
have wealth, intelligence, power, position, and everything upon their side except 
law, except reason, except the divine teachings of Christ, except benevolence, except 
blind, exact, severe justice, and except that jewel of the Anglo-Saxon heart, fair 
play. Undeservedly wounded and humilated beyond expression, I have the honor 
to subscribe myself," your humble and most obedient servant, 

Wm. H. H. Hart. 



10 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

This correspondence having- come to the attention of Senator Wil- 
liam M. Evarts, of Isiew York, and Senator George F. Edmunds, of 
Vermont, they verified the statements in it as to the denial of admis- 
sion of colored students to law schools in this District and elsewhere 
near the mass of the colored population, and the want of facilities by 
the law department of the Howard University to provide this train- 
ing; and Senator Edmunds undertook to provide law books for the law 
department of Howard University and Senator Evarts undertook to 
in'ovide a building by private, benevolent contribution of money to 
erect it and to secure an appropriation by Congress with which to 
employ and compensate a corps of instructors and otherwise maintain 
the department. The Congressional Eecord shows the following pro- 
ceedings in the premises : 

[Proceedings of the Senate April 8, 1S9U, ]). 3252 I'ougressionai Ret-ord.] 

Mr. Edmunds introduced a joint resolution (S. R. 71) directing the Librarian of 
Congress, the Librarian of the Senate, the Librarian of the House of Representa- 
tives, and the Librarian of the Department of Justice, respectively, to deliver extra 
or duplicate copies of law books to the law department of Howard University; 
which was read twice by its title. 

Mr. Edmunds. On the question of reference, I think it to be a duty to say now 
that I have recently heard with astonishmei't that a law school in this District of 
Columbia, connected with a college which exists under the authority of the United 
States, has deliberately, on consideration, refused to allow a person with some 
African blood, and in every respect a gentleman of extraordinary ability, to attend 
its law lectui'es on account of his having African blood in his veins. The Howard 
University has also a law department, and I have introduced this joint resolution 
in order that copies of law books which are not needed for the public service may 
be donated to the Howard University so that portion of our fellow-citizens who are 
denied equal rights in other universities in this Distinct may have a chance to learn 
some law. ^ 

The President jrro tempore. The joint resolution will be referred to the Com- 
mittee on the Library. 

[Proceedings of the Senate, April 12, 1890, p. 3465, Cougressioual Record.] 

LAW BOOKS FOR HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

Mr. Evarts. From the Committee on the Library, I report favorably the joint 
resolution (S. R. 71) directing the Librarian of Congress, the librarian of the Senate, 
the librarian of the House of Representatives, and the librarian of the Department 
of Justice, respectively, to deliver extra or duplicate copies of law books to the law 
department of Howard University. 

It is a joint resolution that was referred to the Committee on the Library, and I 
am instructed by the committee to report it and to ask that it may be immediately 
considered. Its title shows exactly what it is. 

The Presiding Officer. The Senator from New York asks the unanimous con- 
sent of the Senate that the joint resolution be considered at this time. 

Mr. CocKRELL. Let the joint resolution »itself be read for information, subject to 
objection. 

The Presiding Officer. It will be tead for information, subject to objection. 

The joint resolution was read, as follows: 

"Resolved, etc., That the Librarian of Congress, the librarian of the Senate, the 
librarian of the House of Representatives, and the librarian of the Department of 
Justice be, and they are hereby, authorized and directed to deliver to the dean of the 
law department of Howard University, as a gift to the said law department of How- 
ard University, for its use and behoof, one copy of such law books as are now in the 
above-mentioned libraries which are extra or duplicate copies thereof that may be 
spared without injury to the public service." 

By unanimous consent, the joint resolution was considered as in Committee of the 
Whole. 

The joint resolution was reported to the Senate without amendment, ordered to 
be engrossed for a third reading, read the third time, and passed. 



HOWARD UNIVEESITY. ll 

[Proceedings House of Jleiiresentatives August 16, 1890, p. 9420, Cougressioiuil Itecord.] 
Lf W-JJOOKS FOR HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

Mr. O'Neill, of Pennsylvania. I ask unanimous consent to take froui the calendar 
of the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union and put upon its passage a 
joint resohitiou relative to the library of tlie Howard University. It involves no 
appropriation. It has been passed by the Senate and favorably reported by the 
House Committee on the Library. I think its consideration will not occupy a 
moment. As the new session of tlae university will commence in about two weeks, 
it is important that the resolution shonid be acted on now. 

The joint resolution was read, as follows: 

" .Joint resolution (S. E. 71) directing the Libr.iriau of ConnTess, the librarian of the Senate, the libra" 
riau of the House of IJepresentatives, and the librarian of the Department of Justice, respectively > 
to deliver extra or duplicate copies of law books to the law department of tlie Howard University 

" Besolved hy the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United States of America 
in Congress assembled, That the Librarian of Congress, the librarian of the Senate, 
the librarian of the House of Eepresentatives, and the librarian of the Department 
of .Justice be, and they are hereby, authorized and directed to deliver to the dean 
of the law department of Howard University, as a gift to the said law department 
of Howard University, for its use and behoof, one copy of such la-w books as are 
now in the above-mentioned libraries which are extra or duplicate copies thereof 
that may be spared without injury to the public service." 

Inhere being no obje(^tion, the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union 
was discharged from the further consideration of the joint resolution, which was 
ordered to a third reading aud read the third time. 

Mr. McMiLLiN. I wish ito inquire of the gentlemain from Pennsylvania [Mr. O'Neill] 
whether it is not necessary that in tlie different libraries mentioned, especially the 
law department of the Congressional Library, there should be kept more tlian one 
copy of different books for the use of Congress? 

Mr. O'Neill, of Pennsyh'ania. Oh, yes; in many instances there are many more 
copies than one; in almost all cases there are several copies of each volume. 

Mr. McMiLLiN. Does the joint resolution provide that volumes shall not be taken 
in this way from these libraries except Avhere there are more than two copies of any 
particular volume, or is it provided that even where there are only two copies one 
shall be given away in this manner? 

Mr. O'Neill, of Pennsylvania. The idea, of course, is that these libraries shall not 
be stripped of duplicates. The resolution was approved, after careful consideration, 
by the Joint Committee on the Library, composed of the Senate and House commit- 
tees, it being thought very proper that the surplus volumes should be disposed of in 
this way. 

Mr. McMiLLiN. I am entirely willing that any extra copies not needed in actual 
use shall be disposed of where they will do good in educational institutions of this 
kind within the District. But it is the experience of all of us that more than one 
copy of each volume should be retained in these libraries; otherwise we are liable 
to be found without copies for the use for which they were originally intended. 

Mr. O'Neill, of Pennsylvania. If the gentleman desires to amend the resolution 
in that respect, I will not object. 

Mr. Springer. The resolution is already sufficiently guarded to obviate the objec- 
tion of the gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. McMillin]. 

The Speaker. The resolution in its closing language provides only for the disposal 
of "extra duplicate copies that may be spared without injury to the public service." 

Mr. McMillin. I will ask the clerk to read, with the indulgence of the House, the 
preceding provision. 

The joint resolution was again read. 

Mr. McMillin. Now, 1 think there ought to be a proviso that in no instance shall 
the number of copies retained be reduced below two of each volume, because in the 
Congressional Library there are some books of which there are half a dozen copies, 
and yet we sometimes are unable to obtain any. 

Mr. O'Neill, of Pennsylvania. I have no objection to such an amendment. 

Mr. McMillin. I move to amend by adding — 

" Provided, That there shall not be left in either of said libraries less than two 
copies of any one volume." 

Mr. O'Neill, of Pennsylvania. That is satisfactory. 

The Speaker. This amendment requires unanimous consent, as the question is 
now upon the passage of the joint resolution. 

Mr. McMillin. I suppose there will be no objection. 

The Speaker. In the absence of objection, the amendment will be regarded as 
adopted. The Chair hears no objection. 

Mr. McMillin. I call attention to another thing that may result from the operation 
of this joint resolution. Tiiere are four different sources from which these books 



12 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

are to be olitaiuecl, so that the library to which the extra volumes are to be dis- 
tribmed may get duplicate copies of the same book. 

Mr. O'Neill, of Penusylvaaia. The intentiou is so apparent, I think, from the 
wording of the resolution, that that can not happen. 

The joint resolution as amended was passed. 

[Public Resolution— No. 35.] 

Joint resolution directing the Librarian of Congress, the librarian of the Senate, the librarian of the 
House of Representatives, and the librarian of the Department of Justice, respectively, to deliver 
extra or duplicate copies of law books to the law department of Howard University. 

Resolved by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United States of America in 
Congress assembled, That the Librarian of Congress, the librarian of the Senate, the 
librarian of the House of Representatives, and the librarian of the Department of- 
Justice be, and they are hereby, authorized and directed to deliver to the dean of 
the law department of Howard University, as a gift to the said law depai-tment 
of Howard University, for its use and behoof, one copy of sucli law books as are now 
in the above-mentioned libraries which are extra or duplicate copies thereof that 
may be spared without injury to the public service: Provided, That there shall be 
left in each of said libraries not less than two copies of each book. 

Approved, August 28, 1890. 

PursnaHt to this law the president of the mniversity, accompanied 
by the dean of the law department, called upon the various librarians 
embraced by the act, but obtained nothing from any one of them. The 
Librarian of Congress said that such books as could be spared for the 
Howard University were packed away in the crypt of the Capitol and 
that he had not any spare help to get them out and assort them before 
delivering them, but that as soon as Congress provided him additional 
assistants he would do the best he could for the university. It is the 
opinion of the committee that if provision were made for a special 
assistant to the Librarian of Congress to overhaul the packing-rooms 
and sort out these books stored there and then keep charge of them at 
the law school so that the title to them and the control of them would 
not pass from the Government, better results would flow from a second 
application to the Librarian of Congress than befell the officers of the 
university on the occasion of their first one. Be that as it may, the fact 
is the law school is practically without books. 

Senator Hoar, having visited the school and being aware of the 
efforts made to secure text-books and reports and reference works for 
the school, wrote the following circular letter to the editors of the 
Boston newpapers and the I^ew York City newspapers and newspapers 
in other cities, and it appeared in the columns of many of these journals 
in due course without, however, j)rocuring any books for the school up 
to this time. 

Washington, D. C, January 6, 1894. 

Sir : Will you kindly allow me to call the attention of liberal minded persons, 
especially members of the bar, to the law school of Howard University, of this city? 

This is an excellent institution. It has an able and learned faculty and very 
intelligent and promising pupils. 

It is the only institution in the South where young men who have any mixture of 
the blood of the colored race in their veins can be educated to become lawyers or 
have facilities for a thorough study of the Constitution. It is highly desirable that 
future leaders of this race, unmberiug now more than eight millions in this country, 
should have sitch opportunities somewhere, and that they should not be compelled 
to go North for the purpose. 

This school has a good building, known as "Evaxts Hall," which is largely due 
to the generosity of Mr. Collis P. Huntington and Mr. William M. Evarts. But the 
library is sadly deficient — hardly large enough for a young lawyer beginning prac- 
tice. If any generous person would make a gift of money to endow the library, or 
if any person possessing duplicate law books which he does not desire to use, would 
send either to the law school of Howard University it would be a very useful public 
service. Let there be no fear of sending old editions. They will be extremely 
useful . 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 13 

Books ami ilouatious t'oi' this purpose, or communications with rolereuce thereto, 
maybe addressed to rrof. William H. H. Hart, Law Department, Howard University, 
420 Fifth street NW., Washington, D. C. 

I should be glad to answer further inquiry. Prof. Gray, of Harvard, has this 
winter delivered some admirable lectures before this school. I hope his example 
Avill be followed by other instructors from Northern universities. 
I am, faithfully yours, 

Geo. F. Hoar. 

This kind and forcible appeal appeared in tlie Boston and New York 
papers on or about the 8th of January, 1894, and no response of any 
moment having as yet been made to it the faculty exi^ect none, because 
if such matters appearing in the columns of the daily press are not 
acted ujiou promptly they are soon forgotten. The public resolution 
of August 28, 1890, indicating the disposition of Congress in the matter, 
having failed, or being in abeyance, the committee have reported the 
item embraced in lines 3 and 4 of the amendment to supijly the law 
school with a set of text-books and reference books to meet the needs 
of the students unable to purchase them. One thousand dollars will 
not go very far in this direction, but it will be a beginning, and Con- 
gress can add each year to this nucleus of a working library for the 
school. 

Senator Evarts then addressed himself to providing a building for 
the law school by private benevolence and a fund for the maintenance 
of the school by appropriate legislation. 

The following three circular letters were given to Prof. Hart, with 
initial subscriptions, to be brought to the attention of those likely to 
sympathize witli the work of the school and disposed to help it with 
their means : 

52 Wall Street, 
Neio York City, May 20, 1891. 

Dear Sir : I beg leave to ask your kind attention to a matter in which I feel great 
interest, and to Avhich for some years at Washington I have given much attention, 
that is to say, the competent and adequate education of colored youug men of the 
South for the profession of law. 

The law schools in that portion of our country are not accessible to this class of 
our community. But in the law department of Howard University, at Wasiiington, 
there is a good foundation already laid for this professional education, which may 
be developed and expanded with sure promise of most fruitful results. A moderate 
contribution to enlarge a small laAv building now at the service of the University, 
and to prepare it to accommodate the increasing number of applicants for this 
instruction, is all that is needed to have the school in readiness for the October term, 
when it is x)robable as many as a hundred students may wish to receive this instruc- 
tion. But for even this moderate expenditure the University is without means, as 
all its funds are strictly applicable to particular and current use. 

While the legal profession will more readily appreciate the benefits to arise from 
benevolent contribution to this end, I beg leave also to commend it to all who take 
an interest in the Avise instruction of the colored people of the South, as in my 
judgment promising very great and always increasing benefits from a very moderate 
charitable expenditure. 

Prof. Wm. H. H. Hart, who is well known to me, has been authorized by the 
trustees of Howard University to receive contributions or subscriptions for this 
object, and he is entitled to entire confidence in all he shall say or do in this matter. 
Contributions may be paid to him or remitted to his address. No. 420 Fifth street, 
NW., Washington, D. C. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant. 

Wax. M. Evarts. 



Governor's Island, 
New York City, May 19, 1891. 
Dear Sir : While I was president of the Howard University in the District of 
Columbia, I subscribed $10,000 for the foundation of the law department of that insti- 
tution. The trustees have wisely used this sum, with accrued interest, to purchase' 



14 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

a lot frontiug on Judiciary Square in the city of 'Washington. There is at present 
upon this lot a small building in which the sessions of the law school have been 
held, but within the present scholastic year the attendance of young colored men 
from the South upon this department has been so great that the present quarters 
are totally inadequate to accommodate the students. The trustees of the university 
have no funds which they are authorized to use in extending or improviug this build- 
ing, though the size of the lot is adequate for this improvement. Congress has made 
no provision in this direction. 

Recently the attendance upon the law department has greatly increased. This is 
easily accounted for in the fact that students prepared in the various academic insti- 
tutions of the Southern States, iinding themselves excluded from the law schools of 
those States, desire to come to Washington as offering to them the only opportunity 
to be fitted for the legal profession. 

In view of this pressing emergency, I heartily concur with the trustees in com- 
mending this subject to the benevolent attention of all interested in wise efforts for 
the ediication of this class of our community. 

An expenditure of something like $5,000, according to the estimate of practical 
builders, will prepare the law building for the reception of the students at the Octo- 
ber term, and the work can be completed by that time if the means are provided. 

Contributions may be given to Prof. Hart in person, or forwarded to his address, 
viz, Wm. H. H. Hart, esq.. Law School, Howard University, No. 420 Fifth street, 
NW., Washington, D. C, who has been authorized by the authorities of the univer- 
sity to solicit and receive such funds on behalf the board of trustees. 

O. O. Howard, 
Major- General, U. S. Jrviij. 



Stokes Building, Nos. 45, 47, and 49 Cedar Street, 

Neiv York City, May W, 1891. 
Dear Sir : I am deeply interested in the effort^ mentionM in the letter of Mr. 
Evarts, now being made by Prof. Hart to obtain from members of the New York 
bar the sum of $5,000 with which to erect a suitable building for the uses of the law 
school connected with Howard Uuiversity. The value of such a school to the whole 
colored race can not be doubted. A moderate contribution from a small number of 
our profession here will accomplish the desired result, and it would be a very hand- 
some thing to say for both givers and beneficiaries that the members of the New 
York bar furnished the students in this school with a building in which to pursue 
their studies. Surely there are fifty lawyers in this city friendly to such a school 
who will cheerfully, by gifts of $100 each, make up the needed amount. 

Cephas Brainerd. 

It was fouiid, after the architect had completed the building, that it 
had cost $12,000. The trustees helped a little, and the following named 
friends of the cause contributed to the building fund: William M. 
Evarts, J. Evarts Tracy, Joseph H. Ohoate, Mrs. Eoswell Smith, widow 
of the late president of the Century Company, Cephas Brainerd, Thomas 
H. Hubbard, Collis P. Huntington, Thomas Stokes, James Stokes, 
Anson Phelps Stokes, William Bayard Cutting, Bayard Brown, E. 
Fulton Cutting, Edward T. Hunt, John W. Ambrose, William A. 
Stephens, Charles F. Southmayd, William Mitchell, Edward Mitchell, 
John Notman, William Allen Butler, John T. Lockman, Arnold, Con- 
stable & Co,, Bush & Denslow Manufacturing Company, trustees of 
the Phcenix Chemical Works, William M. Evarts, additional to com- 
plete the fund ; thus giving the trustees the building free from debt. 

It may not be inappropriate to give the account of the dedicatory 
exercises attendant upon the completion and opening of this new build- 
ing as reported in the press with the accompanying editorial, because 
of the valuable letters it contains : 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 



15 



HOUSEWAl!MIN(i 
ALUMNI AND 
KNCOlKAGlN(i 



I Colored Aincrican, Juun S, WXi.\ 

AND r.ANQUET— THE WM. M. EVAKTS HALL FILLED WITH HAl'l'V 
AH'.MN.K — TOASTS KESPONDED TO AND LETTERS KILLICD WITH 
WORDS FROM PROMINENT MEN READ. 



fj;"Half an liiindrod alaiuni and iilunuiie were seated at tLe ban(]uet table on the 
evening of May 30, the occasion being a reunion of the gradnates of the law depart- 
ment of Howard University, and the dedication of the new bnilding constructe( 
for the law school by the Hon. William M. Evarts, Hon. C. P. Ilnntingtou, C'eijha 
Brainerd, esq., of the New York City bar, and other gentlemen of that city. 




"\A'iji. M. Evarts Hall, Howard University Law School. 

The table was in the form of the letter L, running nearly the full length of the 
amphitheater of the building and nearly across one end. 

Prof. William H. Richards sat at the head of the table and presided, with President 
Rankin and Trustee William Waring on his right, and Everett J. Waring, esq., of 
the Baltimore bar, and Mrs. Ruth G. Havens on'his left; Prof. William H. H. Hart sat 
at the foot of the table, and Arthur .S. Gray, the \aledictorian of the class of '9o, 
occupied the seat at the end of the short arm of the table. The hall was tastefully 
draped and decorated with the national colors. The menn was served by J. A. 
Berry, of the colored Y. ]M. C. A. building. The table was beautifully dressed and 
labored beneath its tastefully arranged tiers and figures of fruits and flowers. 

President Rankin blessed the table, and the company merrily fell to the discussion 
of the good things of the feast. When this had proceeded for some time Prof. 
Richards rose and congratulated the company upon the reunion and the occasion of 
it. He spoke briefly and eloquently of the nniversity, its great work and its pros- 
perity under the splendid administration of President Rankin; he then referred to 



16 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

the law department and spoke feelingly and affectionately of the two senior mem- 
bers of the faculty, the dean, Benj. F. Leighton, who for many years has labored 
against all odds and discouragements to graduate men and women from the depart- 
ment when the school had no friends and its students no funds. He then spoke of 
the Birneys, who have touched the colored race in this country at three epochs; the 
elder Birney, who freed his slaves and devoted his life to promoting the liberty of 
his fellow man. 

The second generation that went through the war on the right side, one of whom 
was slain in battle, and the third, represented by the Hon. A.A. Birney, now U. 
S. district attorney, who, though pressed with a large practice aud responsible 
official aud public duties, takes the time to carry forward a large part of the work 
of the faculty. He then introduced Jesse Lawson, esq., who read letters received 
from distinguished alumni who could not be present. 

Letters were read from the Hon. D. Augustus Straker, the Hon. John F. Cook, 
aud the Hon. J. H. Smythe, and others. Thomas Campbell, esq., then responded to 
the toast, "The class of 1893." Mrs. Ruth G. Havens responded to the toast, 
"Woman at Howard;" aud R. H. Terrell, esq., responded to the toast, "Our pro- 
fession," Dr. Julia R. Hall responded to the toast, "Greetings to the Esculapians ; " 
Andrew F. Hilyer, esq., responded to the toast, "Our business men;" William E. 
Mathews, esq., responded to the toast, "Equalize the power and preparation of the 
department of the learned professions; " Everett J. Waring responded to the toast, 
"Hints to beginners;" and William H. H. Hart responded to the toast, "The Wil- 
liam M. Evarts Hall." He referred to the forces, moral, mental, and material, 
embraced in the phrase, "The progress of the world," which resulted in the civil 
war and the emancipation of the slaves, and the great statesmen of our country who 
have shaped its course from the repeal of the Missouri Compromise to the present 
time; the great events of the Lemon case; the nomination of President Lincoln; the 
foreign policy of the war period; the impeachment trial of President Johnson; the 
disposal of the prosecution of the chief of the Confederacy, and the conduct of the 
Department of Justice ; the great arbitration at Geneva ; the Electoral Commission 
and the central figure as counsel before it; the conduct of the Department of State, 
its consular service, and the Southern policy. 

The return like Cinciunatus to the plow of the greatest figure in all these trans- 
actions, whose enumeration alone fatigued the ear, to the work of his office and 
the duty of the citizen until called again to the national Senate to promote the 
prosperity of our country and of Howard University, and particularly its law 
department, and the great place it fills and will continue to fill in establishing 
liberty, equality, and fraternity in our country. He then referred to the forces and 
the friends helping forward this great work; the Judiciary Committee and the 
Appropriation Committee of the Senate, and all the members of the Senate without 
one dissenting voice; philanthropists with princely fortunes amassed by personal 
industry aud activity and foresight, and in this connection read the following letters 
from the Hon. C. P. Huntington, in honor of whom the trustees of Howard Uni- 
versity have established the C. P. Huntington professorship of law, and the Hon. 
George F. Hoar: 

23 Broad Street, New York, May 25, 1S93. 

Prof. Wm. H. H. Hart, Howard University Law School, Washington, D. C: 

My Dear Mr. Hart : I thank you sincerely for your kind invitation to attsnd the 
graduating exercises of the law classes of Howard University law school on the 
29th instant. Were I in a position to accept it I should be greatly pleased to go to 
Washington and witness these interesting ceremonies, so significant to those in 
whose interest they are established, for they mark the completion of one long step 
in their careers, the preparatory work of their life, and the commencement of a still 
longer and more serious step, the actual and never-ending struggle for existence ; 
but my time is so filled with days' work that I find it impossible to get away at 
present, even for a day. In fact, I believe that in the fifty-seven years that I have 
been in business for niyself I have never taken six consecutive days for recreation. 

But if I can not be present with you in person I can at least wish for you pleasant 
skies and a full attendance, and hope for your young men the very best results from 
the knowledge they have gained under the judicious teaching of earnest and con- 
scientious instructors. May your students, flushed with the importance of this, 
their great day, keenly appreciate the significance of the greater to-morrow! So 
much depends "upon it! Is it to be begun with the sun, or shall the clock mark the 
proper hour for a legal day's work to commence? It is infinitely easier to slip into 
a habit of pleasure and comfort than to form the habit of work. It is infinitely 
better to acquire the latter. Everybody who has thoroughly tried the first knows 
that the continued search for pleasure becomes in time the most wearisome and 
unsatisfactory labor ; so that the habit of pleasure may be said to ultimately turn 
itself into the habit of work, and the worst kind of work, because unremunerative. 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY, 17 

The habit of work, if couscieiitiously i>er.si8ted in, sees a like curious change, for 
there finally grows out of it a real love for work, and thus it resolves itself at last 
into a habit of pleasure, and brings to its possessor the substantial rewards of tinan- 
cial success and the comforts, physical and moral, that are the net earnings of a 
busy, economical, honest, and reasonabh; life. It ought not to be hard to choose 
between them. 

With kind regards, I am, yours, sincerely, 

C. P. Huntington. 



WoucESTKK, Mass., May 26, 189.3. 
William H. H. Hart, Esq., 

IISO Fifteenth Steeet, NfF., Washinyton, D. C. : 
My Dear Mr. Hart: It will be quite impossible for me to attend the graduating 
exercises of the law school of Howard University. But the young gentlemen have 
my Avarmest sympathy with the good hopes which the Republic holds oitt to them. 
They have many obstacles to encoiinter and overcome. But obstacles are the stimu- 
lants to ingenious souls. Steadily and surely are the colored youth of our country 
taking a higher place in our national life. In this noble eli'ort those who have 
devoted themselves to our profession must be, as the members of our profession 
everywhere in the Republic nuist be, among the leaders. I hope every word that 
will be uttered will be a word of courage and hope. 
I am, with cordial regard, faithfully yours, 

Geo. F. Hoar. 

Prof. Hart then gave an account of the interest manifested in the law school by the 
Hon. George F. Edmunds and the Hon. George F. Hoar, in concert with the Hon. 
William M. Evarts, in securing the legislation providing an appropriation for the 
law school professorships and books for its library; and later of the large contribu- 
tion in money and the great aid in work given by Mr. Evarts to secure the new law 
school building, and the great satisfaction he finds in the prosperity of its work, and 
then read the following letter to the alunmi and alumme : 

231 Second Avenue, 

A^ew York, May 37, 1893. 
To the Alumni of the Law School of Howard University : 

Gentlemen: I sincerely thank you for the kind invitation I have received to x)ar- 
ticipate in the banquet by which you are to celebrate the completion of the law build- 
ing of the university. While I am obliged to regret that it will not be in ray power 
to visit AVashington for this interesting occasion, I most heartily congratulate you 
and all friends of legal ediication upon this permanent establishment and prosperous 
condition of the law school of Howard University. At this school the youth of our 
colored population will find themselves at home and at ease in the prosecution of the 
studies of that noble profession which, under the free and ec^ual institutions of our 
country, is so largely intrusted with their care and maintenance and a steadfast and 
intrepid defense of their practical enjoyment. There are many law schools of great 
eminence and value distributed through all parts of our country, and accessible to 
the youth of our white population and from which the ranks of the profession are 
annually filled from their educated numbers, but the law school of Howard Univer- 
sity must for the present stand, and perhaps always, as the great and conspicuous 
law school for the education of the ambitious, patriotic, and public-spirited youth 
of the many and growing millions of our colored population. 

The occasion, therefore, of your celebration, however interesting and important 
to you and all of us in any point of view, in the aspect of the great promise and 
prospect of constantly increasing numbers that shall here seek their education, 
must find impressive reasons for our congratulations upon what has already been 
achieved, and upon the wider hopes of inestimable benefits which lie before us in 
the future. 

The city of Washington, as tbe seat of our Government, has some most important 
advantages over all other parts of the country for the prosecution of the studies of 
constitutional and political law. Here the Supreme Coui't of the United States 
holds its sessions; here the Congress, the lawmakers for the whole nition, and the 
Chief Magistrate of the country, charged with the execution of these laws, have 
their seat of authority. Here, too, are collected, from time to time, the eminent 
lawyers from every part of our wide territory. Tiiese incidental advantages in 
making these law students observant, as a part of their daily life, of public men 
and public affairs are most valued by those Avho are most conversant with this 
educational influence. It may, therefore, be confidently expected by all the friends 

S. Rep. 304 2 



18 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

of Howard University, aud of its law school, that the latter may easily maintain, 
in the eyes of the colored youth of this country, an unrivaled superiority over all 
others which may be open to them. 

With my best wishes for the success of the festive celebration to which you have 
extended to me the honor of an invitation, and for the welfare in all things of the 
law school of Howard University and its learned laculty and the scholars under 
their discipline, I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 

Wm. M. Evarts. 

Prof.. Hart sjiolce at length without notes and concluded as follows: 

JLt might not be uninteresting at this point to examine for a moment the nature of 
the work of those characters in past and present times whose memory is cherished 
and whose lives are extolled by numkind. 

Observation aud reason seem to indicate that human effort is fruitful or barren, 
long sustained by fame or ephemeral and idle, in proportion as its motive and effect 
contribute to general happiness or purely selfish interests. 

Experience teaches and history contirnis the truth that the greatest security of 
human happiness is liberty; not liberfas qaidlibctfaciendi, which may be either the 
timidity of the lamb or the ferocity of the tiger, but civil liberty or individual and 
collective freedom from all restraints n])on natural liberty except those imposed liy 
wise aud beneficent laws for the public good. 

This liberty is the idol of the most vigorous stocks of the human race, and those 
who havede fined it have accordingly been considered great and learned, as Aristotle, 
Justinian, Montesquien, and Blackstone; those who have warmed the heart ancl 
kindled the imagination in describing and applying its powers and virtues, its value 
and benefits, have been pronounced divinely eloquent, as Demosthenes, Cicero, 
Burke, and Evarts, and those who have fought its battles and won its victories have 
become famous heroes, as I^eonidas, Hannibal, Toussaint, Garibaldi, John Brown, 
Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. 

The want of civil liberty is regarded as thereproachof ages past and the fullenjoy- 
ment of it as the most precious heritage destined for the generations to come. " The 
liberty of the people" is but another expression for the prevalence of salutary laws, 
devised and framed in wisdom and executed in Justice and judgment, which discipline 
and restrain the strong, and protect and support the weak, which renders to each his 
own, giving life its security, property its value, labor its reward, and society its 
peace, order, power, and prosperity. 

That especial line of human effort aiul systematic work must be, then, the most 
Worthy which has for its purpose the establishment of liberty for all the people, 
and that is the mission of the departmeut to which we belong and whose usefulness 
we are met here to-night to celebrate and extend.. 

Whoever, therefore, labors to push outward the boundary aud intehsify the influ- 
ence of the principles and practice of liberty is a disciple of truth aud a benefactor 
of his kind, whetlier his place be that of the sturdy husbandman or of the casual 
speaker upon the platform or hustings, of the journalist to his ftjw careless readers, 
or of the clergyman to his few hearers, or whether his genius hath exalted him in 
importance and jjower far above all these to become the statesman of his country 
and to shape its ilestiny in the forum or the Cabinet or the Senate. 

Who in providence, then, hath written, highest aud brightest and largest by 
service, his name on the pages of the history of his day in the promotion of the 
liberty of his country, and stood oftenest in the breach when grave perils threat- 
ened its safety ? 

His should be the chosen name by which our work may be designated and our 
Inn of Temple nominated, and accordingly we have written in golden letteis, just 
beneath the architrave, across the very front of our airinm, the words " William M. 
Evarts Hall." 

But, gentlemen, the youth who throng the eastern gateway of our law school must 
be taught that if human happiness depends in a large degree upon civil liberty, 
liberty itself can not exist without virtue. Character can be developed and main- 
tained in no other way than by denying oneself all desires which reason does not 
authorize aud regulating one's conduct in all things by prudence, fortitude, temper- 
ance, justice, and benevolence. Integrity, without break or blot, and conscience, 
alive aud alert, softened by a genial sympathy and sweetened by courteous readi- 
ness for service to others, are the attributes of a virtuous character. What name 
represents these qualities so deserviag of admiration in the friend, the citizen, the 
patron, and the statesman f Here there must be no error in selecting the courtly 
and brilliant ideal as the exemplar of our youth rather than the plain and simple, 
but withal composed aud honest, features of the maid who met Hercules in the way 
and repaid his favor with the distinction and power so justly praised by the moralist 
i\nd so widely celebrated Ijy the poets. 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 19 

We ii<><uu |K)iut to the uame above our threshokl as most tyijical and illustrative — 
uot only of the milder virtues of cheerfulness, benevolence and magnanimity, but 
also of the more masculine ones of constancy, gravity, fortitude, fidelity, and tirin- 
ness; then, too, we find that these well-defined traits of character are peculiar to 
the lineage of him whom we honor to-night, and are traceable backwards through 
the stock whence he sprang to Roger Sherman and Jeremiah Evarts, and forward to 
the sons who serve society in the army, the forum, and the churcli, and to the 
daughters who minister to the poor, the ignorant, and the afflicted, and who are 
mothers of families. 

But virtue is the offspring of knowledge. The will must be informed before it can 
be virtuously conformed. Man must know the good and the true before he can exter- 
nalize it. 

The difference in the knowledge possessed by individuals constitutes largely the 
difference between them. 

The difference between nations is said by Buckle to be found in the difference 
between the knowledge possessed by the great men of each, the directions this 
knowledge takes, and the degree of its diffusion among the people. 

Whoever promotes learning lives fully up to the dignity of human nature; learn- 
ing in the mental and moral spheres corresponds to light in the physical world, and 
it ought to be as common as water and as free as air. How mean, how miserable 
and malignant, then, are the motives of the men who would darken the understand- 
ing, dwarf the moral stature, and abridge the life of mankind of whatever condition, 
country, color, creed, or sex. Said James the First: "If I were not a king I would 
be a univetsity man." 

The fountain of learning, where youth come to be strengthened and instructed, 
should bear the name of a great scholar who magnifies the ripe culture of the uni- 
versity. 

Such a one we have in the distinguished patron of the department of learning- 
domiciled in the " William M. Evarts Hall," whose great learning, scientific acumen, 
polished manners, universal sympathy, and profound philosophy render him the 
ornament of his country and these, together with his marvelous eloquence, make 
him the foremost figure in our profession, which he so eminently enriches and adorns. 

At the conclusion of these remarks Trustee Waring rose and said that he had 
learned much at this dedication and had become impressed with the importance of 
the work and position of Howard University. Great things were at hand and 
greater were to come, and the duty of each alumnus to work for God, humanity, and 
country was only limited by his opportunities. 

Mrs. Chambers then spoke and said that great things indeed had been done and 
wer« being done by Howard University; that it had been the dream of her life to 
learn the law, to study its philosophy, and trace its development as human society 
evolved itself into its present complex and civilized form; that, moA ed by this 
absorbing desire from early childhood to mature womanhood, she had at last gone 
from door to door of all the uniAcrsities offering to pay thrice down the sum asked 
of any man to be instructed in the law, and had been turned away by them all 
because she was a woman, until she came to the law school of Howard University, 
where no such selfish, narrow, and uncharitable spirit prevailed. That in Howard 
University, from top to bottom, the white woman and the colored woman were given 
the sa.me generous consideration accorded the white man and the colored man, and 
that it is now the noblest institution on earth. 

President Rankin then rose and said tliat the banquet was, in all its features, the 
best to which he had ever sat down. He, himself, would go away more full of hope 
and more firm of purpose for the work than when he came into the hall. 

God was blessing his own, and was turning the hearts of his great children to this 
charge. He then referred to the coincidence of the day, in the instances that the 
board of trustees had on this evening passed a resolution to build at once the 
Andrew-Evarts-Rankin chapel and library, while this company was dedicating the 
William M. EvartsHall. Andrew-EA-arts-Rankinwasnamedafterthe great Jeremiah 
Evarts, aa^Iiosc high moral traits led him to give up the distinguished career which 
his magnificent abilities would have won him, to serve the cause of justice, human- 
ity, and patriotism in shaping the policy of our people toward the Indians. The 
good done them, and the national shame spared our country, is the work of this 
noble man, who has given a son of the centuries, one of "Plato's men of uniA'ersal 
sympathy,'' to the world. 

Prof. E. H. Thomas then spoke for the faculty, and James F. Bundy, es(i., the 
secretary and treasurijr of the law school, spoke of the need of money to carry for- 
ward the Avork of the department and to bring its adA^antages before the youth of 
the country who desire to become learned in the law. He then recounted how the 
faculty of this department had been strengthened by the efforts of Senator Hoar and 
Associate Justice Gray of the Supreme Court, which had resulted in securing the 
services of the professors of the Harvard University law school to come to Wash- 



20 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

ingtou one at a time to deliver lectures to our law students, and that Prof. Gray 
would begin this work next autumn, and it was hoiked next year to include in this 
arrangement the law faculty of Yale University. 

The company at a late hour dispersed, delighted with the first reunion ever held 
by the alnmni and alumnn' of the law department and the dedication of its beauti- 
ful hall. 

[Editorial Colored American, June 3, 1893.] 

A KAINBOW OVER HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

The reunion banquet of the alumni of the law department of Howard University, 
described in another column, seems to have a significance beyond that of the ordi- 
nary " movable feast." 

All the usual observances were conducted with care and nicety. The supper was 
dainty and deftly served. The guests were well-bred and well-dressed. The 
atmosphere was permeated with refinement and gentle good-fellowship. The pre- 
siding officer of the occasion, Prof. Richards, fulfilled the delicate task with the 
modesty, the dignity, and the repose of manner which mark the perfect gentleman. 
The presence of Dr. Rankin, president of the university, is always welcome and 
inspiring, and his announcement that the Andrew-Evarts-Rankin chapel would 
shortly be added to the college buildings, marked the fact that the name of Rankin 
is as inseparable from the future as from the past and present of the university. 

Mr. Waring, the handsome and brilliant young lawyer of Baltimore, still felt the 
elation of his applause of the previous evening, and of the honor received later from 
the authorities of the university. 

The attendance of Rev. Wm. Waring and Dr. J alia Hall, a gifted and beautiful 
woman, was an evidence that the law department was glad to recognize the 
equality of the other professions. The rare sincerity and pathos of the remarks of 
Prof. Thomas indicated that the labor of the teachers in this department is no half- 
hearted and perfunctory service. The wonderful rhetoric of Prof. Hart met an 
appreciation which was an evidence of the fine intelligence of his audience, and in 
itself would not have disgraced the man who is the example and inspiration of his 
life, William M. Evarts. The rich, wise sentences of Mr. Terrell, a "silver- 
tongued" orator, fell like the cadences of sweet and solemn music. The honesty 
and hope in the words of Mr. Campbell meant volumes for the reputation of the 
students will reflect upon the university. The high compliment paid to the busi- 
ness talents of Mr. Hilyer evinced that the charge of volatility may be relegated to 
the past. The enthusiastic utterances of Mrs. Chambers and Mrs. Havens in behalf 
of liberty and equality for all were received with a respect which could have had 
no smaller basis than faith in the cause they magnified. The closing words of 'Dr. 
Rankin were full of hope and encouragement and inspiration. 

But these were not all the tokens which distinguished the evening. Under, above, 
around all the eloquence, the oratory, the logic, and the mirth, shone the true uni- 
versity spirit, the unity, the whole-heartedness, the loyal brotherhood, the pride of 
oneness with an honored, revered, beloved alma mater. 

Howard University, in all her remarkable history, has never known such an ova- 
tion, has never felt the line of the ''charmed circle" drawn so firmly and tangibly 
about her, as on this occasion. The law department has set an example which can 
not be overlooked or ignored. Howard University has stood for years, bearing aloft 
the beacon-light of a high liberty, a broad equality, a peaceful unity. Toward this 
light have moved the procession of students of several races, of both sexes. They 
have been intellectually warmed and fed, and have gone out full and eager into the 
field which is the world. Whether they wouhl or not, their honors have been the 
honors of their alma mater and their fame her starry crown. But it has been left 
until now for this light, long borne bravely aloft, so to set on fire their very hearts that 
wherever they go, the pure standard of Howard — liberty, equality, and Christian 
unity — will shine in their lives and reflect such light upon the university that her high 
gray dome will glow with a new and a perpetual glory. 

Mr. Evarts proceeded in the matter of securing provision for the 
maintenance of the law school by introducing in the Senate the follow- 
ing bill : 



HOWARD UNIVERSITV. 21 

5l8t Congress. S. 4429. 

Ist ISeasion. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

September 2.5, 1890. 

Mr. EvARTS introduced the following bill ; whicli was read twice and referred to 
the Committee on the Judiciary. 

A BILL providing for the more complete endowment of the law department of tiie 
Howard University, in the Di^rict of (Jolumbia. 

Whereas it appears from tlie public print, aucl is otherwise confirmed, 
that colored persons are excluded from the law schools of certain 
States and are compelled to resort to the District of Columbia for 
an opportunity to become learned and skilled in the theory and 
practice of the law of the land; and 
Whereas it appears and is confirmed that the law department of the 
Howard University, in the District of Columbia, freely and will- 
ingly admits persons of color to be trained for the profession of the 
law, and is zealous iu fitting such students for a life of usefulness; 
and 
Whereas the funds of the Howard University available for its law 
department are meager and for the most part invested in a small 
building, near the City Hall, where the courts of the District of 
Columbia sit, in which the sessions of the law school are held, and 
the trustees of the said university are unable without a more com- 
plete endowment of the law department to provide and maintain a 
law library and corps of instructors which will furnish to colored 
youth facilities for being trained in the law equal to those enjoyed 
by other citizens not proscribed on account of race or color: 
Therefore, 
Be it enacted by the Senate and Rouse of Bepresentatii'es of the United 
Stdtes of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be, and hereby 
is, annually appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not other- 
wise appropriated, to be paid as hereinafter provided, to the Howard 
University, in the District of Columbia, for the more complete endow 
ment, support, and maintenance of the law d«'partment of said univer- 
sity now established, the sum of sixteen thousand dollars for the year 
ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and annually 
thereafter there shall be, and hereby is, appropriated, out of any money 
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the like sum of sixteen 
thousand dollars per annum for the more complete endowment of the 
law department of the aforesaid university. 

Sec. 2. That the suras hereby annually appropriated to the Howard 
University, in the District of Columbia, for the more complete endow- 
ment, support, and maintenance of the law department of the said 
university shall be annually paid on or before the thirty-first day of 
July of each year, by the Secretary of the Treasury, upon the warrant 
of the Secretary of the Interior, out of the Treasury of the United 
States, to the officer of the Howard University in the District of Colum- 
bia, authorized by the board of trustees of the said university to receive 
the same: Provided, That no portion of said moneys shall be applied, 
under any pretense whatever, to the purchase, erection, or repair of any 
building or buildings. 

This bill was never reported back to the Senate, either favorably or 
otherwise, owing to the great press of matters before the committee, 



22 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

and is mentioned here in fall in order to show what Mr. Evarts deemed 
a moderate and proper amount to carry the law department through its 
year's work, after he had given considerable thought and very careful 
consideration to the whole subject, and canvassed the matter with vari- 
ous members of the Judiciary Committee, every member of whom has 
always favored a proper provision for this law school, as will appear 
from the several amendments of that committee touching this matter 
and yet to be presented in this report. 

On February 10, 1891, the following bill was presented in the Senate, 
read twice, and referred to the Committee on A^jpropriations, and 
reported back to the Senate by Mr. Allison with amendments, the 
items concerning Howard University being as they ajjpear below: 

51gt Congress, H. R. 13462. [Calendar No., 2732. 

2d-Session. ^ 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

February 10, 1891. 

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations. 

February 21, 1891. ^ 

Reported by Mr. Allison with amendments, viz : [Omif the parts in brackets and 
insert the parts printed in italics.^ 

AN ACT making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for 
the tiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and uinety-two, and for 
other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate cmd House of Bepresentatives of the United, 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, 
and the same are hereby, appropriated, for the objects hereinafter 
expressed, for the tiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred 
and ninety- two, namely: 



Pase 71. 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

For maintenance of the Howard University, to be used in payment 
of part of the salaries of the officers, professors, teachers, and other 
regular employees of the uuiversitj^, the balance of which will be paid 
from donations and other sources, twenty thousand three hundred 
dollars. 

For tools, materials, wages of instructors, and other necessary ex- 
penses of the industrial department, four thousand dollars. 

For books for library, book cases, shelving, and fixtures, one thou- 
sand dollars. 

For material and apparatus for chemical, physical, and natural his- 
tory, and laboratory, live hundred dollars. 

For improvement of grounds, one thousand dollars. 

For repairs of buildings, two thousand four hundred doHars. 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 23 

Oil Febnuiiy 1<>, 181tl, Mr. Evarts reported tlietbllowhi.ii' inneiHlineiit 
from the Ooininittee on the Jndicitiry: 

51st Congress, H. R. 134B2. 

2(1 Session. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Fkbrcary 16, 1891. 

Referred to the Committee on Appropriations and ordered to be printed. 

AMENDMENT rei)orted by Mr. Evarts, from the Committee on the Judiciary, and 
intended to be proposed to the biIl(H. R. 13462) making appropriations for sundry 
civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending .June thirtieth, eighteen 
hundred and ninety-two, and for other purposes, viz: On page 71, after line 14, 
insert the following: 

P'or the uiaiiiteuaiice of the law department of tlie Howard Uni- 
versity, eight thousand dollars. 

On February 27, 1891, the bill having been amended by the Senate, 
the action of the Senate with respect to the Judiciary Committee amend- 
ment is shown by amendment Xo. 153. 

51st Congress, H. R. 13462. 

2d Session. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

February 27, 1891. 

Referred to the Committee on Appropriations, with the amendments of the Senate, 
and ordered to be printed. 

[Omit the parts in brackets and insert the parts printed in tfaJics.~\ 

AN ACT making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for 
the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and for 
other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepyesentatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled] That the following sums be, 
and the same are hereby, appropriated, for the objects hereinafter 
expressed, for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred 
and ninety-two, namely: 

* * * * * * * 

[Page 77.] 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

For maintenance of the Howard University, to be used 

[Page 78.] 

in payment of part of the salaries of the officers, professors, teachers, 
and others regular employees of the university, the balance of which 
will be paid from donations and other sources, (153) [twenty] twenty- 
eight thousand three hundred dollars. (154) And the proper officers of 
said university shall report annually to the Secretary of the Interior how 
the appropriation is expended. 

For tools, materials, wages of instructors, and other necessary 
expenses of the industrial department, four thousand dollars. 

For books for library, book cases, shelving, and 'fixtures, one 
thousand dollars. 



24 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

For material and apparatus for cliemicalj physical and natural his- 
tory, and laboratory, five hundred dollars. 

For improvement of grounds, one thousand dollars. 

For repairs of buildings, two thousand four hundred dollars. 

Instead of putting in the entire amendment alter line 4, on page 78, 
as proposed by Mr. Evarts, the Senate was led to put it in by increasing 
the sum of the salary clause of the professors and teachers of the 
university from $20,300 to $28,300, as may be seen by an inspection of 
the items in the amended bill and in the appended amendment: 

51st Cougress, H. R. 13462. 

2d Session. 

IX THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Febkuaky 16, 1891. 

Referred to the Committee on Appropriations and ordered to be printed. 

AMENDMENT reported by Mr. Evarts, from the Committee on the Judiciary, and 
intended to be proposed to the bill (H. R. 13462) making appropriations for sundry 
civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen 
hundred and ninety-two, and for other purposes, viz : On page 78, after line 4, in- 
sert the following: 

For the maintenance of the law department of the Howard Univer- 
sity, eight thousand dollars. 

This proved a most disastrous arrangement to the law department 
amendment, because when the bill went to the conference committee 
the House conferrees attacked this eight thousand dollar increase to a 
clause in which they themselves had allowed $20,300, according to the 
-estimates of the Secretary of the Interior. The Senate conferrees 
yielded $4,000, reducing the clause to $24,300, thus giving the law 
department only $4,000 of the |8,000 voted by the Senate. And there, 
ever since, the law department appropriatioii has stood as a cushion 
on the top of the column, protecting the academic appropriation beneath 
it, and itself being reduced lower and lower each year. 

The same amendment was inserted in the sundry civil bill the follow- 
ing year, the House of Representatives appropriating $20,000 in the 
clause providing salaries for the professors, thus ignoring provision for 
the law department, and the Senate adding $4,300, so as to include the 
estimates of the Secretary of the Interior for the law school. 

This action of the Senate appears- in the following draft of the bill: 

52d CongTess, H. R. 7,520. 

1st Session. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

July 15, 1892. 

Referred to the Committee on Appropriations with the amendments of the Senate 

and ordered to be printed. 

[Omit the parts in brackets and insert the parts printed in italics.'\ 

AN ACT making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for 
the fiscal year ending .June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, and for 
other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, 
and the same are hereby, appropriated, for the objects hereinafter 
expressed, for the fiscal year ending June thirtietli, eighteen hundred 
and ninety-three, namely: 

* * # * * * * 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 25 

[Page 74.] 
HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

For maintenance of the Howard University, to be used in payment 
of part of the salaries of the officers, professors, teachers, and other 
regular employees of the university, the balance of which will be jiaid 
from donations and other sources, ('306) [twenty thousand] twenty-four 
thousand three hundred dollars. And the proper officers of said uni- 
versity shall report annually to the Secretary of the Interior how the 
appropriation is expended; (207) and the Secretary of the Interior shall 
estimate in detail for the next fiscal year the items of expenditure iwovided 
for in this paragraph ; 

For tools, materials, wages of instructors, and other necessary 

[Page 75.} . 

expenses of the industrial department, (208) [two] four thousand dollars; 

For books for library, bookcases, shelving and fixtures, (209) [five 
hundred] one thousand dollars ; 

For material and apparatus for chemical, physical, and natural his- 
tory, and laboratory, five hundred dollars; 

For improvement of grounds, (210) [five hundred] owe thousand dollars ; 

For repairs of buildings, (211) [one] tico thousand dollars; 

In all, (212) [twenty-four thousand five] thirty-two tliousand eight 
hundred dollars. 

The following year Senator Hoar again reported the Judiciary Com- 
mittee amendment again providing $8,000 for the maintenance of the 
law school for the ensuing fiscal year: 

52d Congress, H. R. 10238. 

2d Session. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Febkuary 3, 1893. 
Referred to the Committee on Appropriations and ordered to be printed. 

AMENDMENT reported by Mr. Hoar, from the Committee on the Judiciary, and 
intended to be proposed to the bill(H. R. 10238) maliing appropriations for sundry 
civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending .Tune thirtieth, eighteen 
hundred and ninety-lour, and for other purposes, viz: Page 17, line 48, insert the 
following : 

For the maintenance of the law department of the Howard Univer- 
sity, eight thousand dollars. 

The sundry civil bill being under consideration by the Senate Febru- 
ary 21, 1893, the Congressional Eecord of that date discloses the fol- 
lowing disposition of the amendment: 

Mr. Hoar. I was not aware that the committee had taken such action. I with- 
draw the amendment and move another to come in at the same place. 

The Vice-President. The amendment proposed by the Senator from Massachu- 
setts will be stated. 

The Chief Clerk. On page 48. after line 17, it is proposed to insert: 

"For the maintenance of the law department of the Howard University, $8,000." 

Mr. Allisox. I will say to the Senator from Massachusetts that the committee 
have also made provision for thai in a diiierent way, however, under the head of 
" Howard University." 

Mr. Hoar. On what page? I do not iind that. 

Mr. Allisox. On page 63. The committee have recommended an increase in line 
12, on that page, which the Senate has already agreed to as in Committee of the 



26 HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

Whole, of $24,300, from $18,500. That is the amount estimated for iu the Book of 
Estimates for the law department of Howard University. The House failed to 
appropriate for the law department. We have added just the amount of the esti- 
mate for the law department in the bill. 

Mr. Hoar. Then the only question of difference between me and the committee 
will be a question of $1,500, which 1 do not think I shall detain the Senate by debat- 
ing, but I have given considerable examination to that subject, both at the present 
session and in former years, and I wish the Senate would so far consent to a modiii- 
cation of the Senate amendment as to add after the word " dollars," in line 13, "of 
which $6,500 shall be for the law department." 

Mr. Allison. I do not object to that. 

The Vice-President. The amendment will be stated. 

The Chief Clerk. On page 63, in line 13, after the word "dollars," it is proposed 
to insert : 

" Of which $6,500 shall be for the law department." 

The amendment was. agreed to. 

52d Congress, H. R. 10238. Calendar No., 1338. 

2d Session. 

[Report No. 1287.] 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

February 3, 1893. 

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations. 

February 13, 1893. 

Reported by Mr. Allison with amendments, viz: [Omit the parts in brackets and 
insert the pai'ts printed in italics.'\ 

AN ACT making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the 
fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and for other 
purposes. 

Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, 
and the same are hereby, appropriated, for the objects hereinafter 
expressed, for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred 
and ninety- four, namely : 



[Page 63.] 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

For maintenance of the Howard University to be used in payment of 
part of the salaries of the ofQcers, professors, teachers, and other 
regular employees of the university, the balance of which will be paid 
from donations and other sources, [eighteen thousand five] tioentyfour 
thousand three hundred dollars. And the proper officers of said uni- 
versity shall report annually to the Secretary of the Interior how this 
appropriation is expended. 

For tools, materials, wages of instructors, and other necessary 
expenses of the indastrial department, [two thousand five hundred] 
three thousand dollars. 

For books for library, bookcases, shelving and fixtures, three hundred 
dollars. 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 27 

For material and apparatus for chemical, physical, and natural 
history, and laboratory, tive hundred dollars. 

For improvement of grounds, five hundred dollars. 
For repairs of buildings, one thousand dollars. 

Page 64. 

In all, [twenty-three thousand three] twenty-nine thousand six hundred 
dollars. 

The bill then went to the conference committee of the two Houses 
of Congress carrying an appropriation of $18,500 for the salaries of 
professors other than those of the law department and $0,500 for the 
professors of that department. The conference committee struck out 
the special provision limiting $6,500 to the law department and 
reduced the gross sum of the clause providing for the salaries of pro- 
fessors from $24,300 to $23,500, as appears from the following provi- 
sions of the sundry civil appropriation law : 

HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 

For mainteiiauce of the Howard Uuiversity, to be used in payment of part of the 
salaries of the officers, professors, teachers, and other regular employees of the uni- 
versity, the balance of Avhich will be paid from donations and other sources, twenty- 
three thousand five hundred dollars. And the proper officers of said university shall 
report annually to the Secretary of the Interior how this appropriation is expended. 

For tools, materials, wages of instructors, and other necessary expenses of the 
industrial department, three thousand dollars. 

For books for library, bookcases, shelving, and fixtures, three hundred dollars. 

For material and apparatus for chemical, physical, and natural history, and labora- 
tory, five hundred dollars. 

For improvement of grounds, five hundred dollars. 

For repairs of buildings, one thousand dollars. 

In all, twenty-eight thousand eight hundred dollars ($28,800). 

The final result being that the law department, so far from getting 
the $8,000 recommended by the Judiciary Committee, or even the 
$6,500 secured by the substituted amendment of Senator Hoar, as 
above set forth in the Record, was made to bear the loss of the entire 
$800 by which the conference committee reduced the amount of this 
particular clause; and instead of getting even the $4,000 it had enjoyed 
the two previous years it only received for the current year $3,200. 

And this is not the worst feature of it, for the Secretary of the Inte- 
rior bases his estimates for the ensuing year upon this reduced allow- 
ance, as the estimates for the present bill disclose in the excerpt appli- 
cable to the law school. 



28 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 



[Extract from p. 238, Estimates of Appropriations.] 
Estimates of appropriations required for the service of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895. 



General object (title of appropriation) and details and 
explanations. 



Maintenance of Howard Universitj^ : 

Maintenance of the Howard University, to be used 
in payment of part of tlie salaries of the oificers, 
professors, teachers, and other regular employes 
of the university, the balance of which will be 
paid from donations and other sources, being for 
a portion of the salaries of the following, to wit — 

President of the university 

Secretary and treasurer 

Six professors, at $1,350 each 

One professor 

One professor 

One teacher 

Three teachers, at $720 each 

One teacher 

Two teachers, at $540 each 

One teacher 

One matron 

One librarian 

Two professors in law department, at $1,000 each . . 

One professor in law department 

One lecturer in law department 



Total. 



Date of acts, 
or treaties, 
providing 
for the ex- 
penditure. 



Mar. 3, 1893 
...do..--... 



Eeferences to 
Statutes at 
Lar^e, or to 
Revised Stat- 
utes. 



^ol.or p 



27 595, '6 



-do . 
.do 
.do , 
-do 
-do 
.do 
.do 
.do 
do 
-do 
-do 
.do 
-do 



Sec. 



Estimated 
amount re- 
quired for 
each detail- 
ed object of 
expendi- 
ture. 



.$2. 800. 00 
1, 600. 00 
8, 100. 00 

1, 080. 00 
800. 00 
800. 00 

2, 1'eo. 00 

630. 00 
1, 080. 00 
310. 00 
540. 00 
400. 00 

2, 000. 00 
800. 00 
400. 00 



23, 500. 00 



These estimates j)rovide only for four in embers of the law school 
faculty at a rate of compensation much less than that paid to the mes- 
sengers of the Senate ; whereas the faculty consists of five instructors 
and a secretary, in addition to whom are needed a librarian, a janitor, 
and means with which to provide for lig'ht, fuel, furniture, stationery, 
and the incidental expenses attendant on having distinguished lec- 
turers from the Harvard and Yale universities occasionally at the 
school. The committee deem $16,000, the sum first fixed by Senator 
Evarts, not too much, but assuming that a special assistant to the 
Librarian of Congress will have charge of the library, $8,000 could be 
made to cover the work on an estimate allowing for — 

3 professors, at $1,680 each $5, 040 

2 lecturers, at $880 each 1,760 

1 secretary 500 

1 janitor*. 300 

Fuel, light, furniture, and stationery 400 

The Senate has repeatedly voted this amount to the school and the 
committee to whom the amendment was referred at this session of 
Congress have been careful to recommend what the Senate has already 
endeavored to secure for this work from which all the States derive 
direct advantages; for if Senators will examine the catalogue of this 
law school they will find that of the 77 members of the classes of the 
session 1891-'92, 1 was ft-om Alabama, 3 from Arkansas, 2 from the 
District of Columbia, 3 from Georgia, 1 each from Illinois, Indiana, and 
Kansas, 7 from Kentucky, 3 from Maryland, 1 each from Michigan and 
Minnesota, 3 from Missouri, 5 from Mississippi, 1 each from ISTebraska 
and New Hampshire, 2 from New York, 7 from North Carolina, 2 from 
Ohio, 1 from Pennsylvania, 7 from South Carolina, 5 from Tennessee, 2 
from Texas, 12 from Virginia, and 1 from West Virginia ; showing that 



HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 29 

24 States participated in the beuetits of that single year. The com- 
mittee therefore recommend that the amendment be incorporated entire 
in the bill onjts own footing and then be insisted upon without modi- 
fication by tm? Senate in its action upon the conference report upon the 
bill. 

The special claims of the colored people are seldom urged upon Con- 
gress, and they participate only in a very humble way, in the great 
appropriations made for all the purposes of Government. They are 
not contractors or public carriers or proprietors of valuable riparian 
rights, to be enhancedby the river and harbor approi^riatious, nor judges, 
legislators, or cabinet ministers, to share in the dignities and emoluments 
carried by appropriations for the judicial, legislative, and executive 
establishments; nor ambassadors abroad to enjoy the honors and profits 
and courtesies originating- in thediplomatic appropriations ; nor builders 
of ships, and officers of squadrons, and of army corps, to have a part in 
the distinction, the authority, and applause supported by the army and 
naval appropriations. They are only humble toilers who sweat in the 
fields, the highway, the mines, and the quarries, for a daily pittance, 
and are strangers to the amenities, the comforts, the luxuries, the 
pride, the pomp and x>ower, which are the common possession of the 
white people of our country. 

Therefore the committee feel that the desire of our colored fellow 
citizens to have an opportunity to study the law, to which all alike owe 
the blessings of liberty, ought not to be disaijpointed ; for in the stately 
words of Clarendon : 

The law is the standard and guardian of our liberty; it circumscribes and defends 
it; but to imagine liberty without law is to imagine every man with a sword in his 
hand to destroy him who is weaker than himself. 



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